A Rose in Pain
by Kagashira
Summary: After being abandoned, betrayed, and seen as a brat by her team, Ruby Rose completely cuts ties with her former friends to focus on conquering her weaknesses and to become the strongest Huntress in all of Beacon. Will this be the end of her friendship with Weiss, Blake, and Yang?
1. Chapter 1

**CHAPTER 1 \- Forgotten Rose**

* * *

Ruby Rose was alone in her dorm room on a Friday night as she played on her Scroll, waiting for her teammates to return.

After their last class of the day, they said for her to go on ahead of them as they had to take care of something. Ruby, never one to doubt her friends, went on back to her room and simply passed the time for them to return by playing on her Scroll so she could ask what they wanted to do for the weekend.

The only problem being at it was four hours later and they had yet to return. This worried Ruby as she wondered if something happened that held them up or if they got into trouble but Ruby had to remember they each had their weapons on them and were in fit physical condition.

Which confused her more since they promised they'd be right there and they hadn't returned any of her texts or calls either.

Ruby's worries were over when the door opened to reveal Weiss, Blake, and Yang all entered the room as they conversed with each other and they seemed to have gotten back from something exciting given how happy they all were.

"Guys!" Ruby said as she hopped off her bed and ran up to them. "Where were you?! It's been over four hours!"

"Oh, has it?" Blake said as she checked the clock. "Sorry, Ruby. We must've lost track of the time."

"For FOUR hours?" Ruby asked skeptically.

"...We REALLY lost track of the time." Blake said, holding up her hands in defense.

"Well, it's okay if you guys forgot," Ruby said calmly. "So, now that you're back, what do you wanna do?"

"Actually, Rubes," Yang spoke up. "The three of us are heading over to Team JNPR for a few hours. Just the three of us."

"What? You mean I can't come?" Ruby asked with a hint of sadness.

"Sorry, it's just that we're doing stuff that you're too young for," Yang said but didn't really sound apologetic.

"But that's not fair! Just because I'm two years younger doesn't mean I shouldn't be allowed to come! I'm the team leader!" Ruby said.

"Well, excuse us for wanting some time away from you for a change!" Weiss spoke up. "Sometimes you're too much to take at once."

"She has a point, Ruby," Blake said with less annoyance than Weiss but still annoyed nonetheless. "We spend time with you all the time and just need a break."

"But that's only during school! Once classes end, you three go out to Vale or something else without me!"

"That was just a few times, Rubes. Besides, Nora got her hands on alcohol! We can't miss this!" Yang said with a grin at the thought of how Nora illegally got her hands on that stuff.

"Wait! You guys are 17! You have to be 21 to drink!" Ruby said with some heat.

"Well, we can pass for seventeen, but you're too small and high-pitched," Yang said.

"I'm not high-pitched!" Ruby said, her voice cracking slightly.

"My point exactly," Yang said as the three began to exit out the dorm. "Later, Rubes! We'll be back later tonight."

"But...!" Ruby tried to say, only for the door to be slammed in her face and she was left alone until she heard the sounds of her teammates being happily greeted by Team JNPR before the door was heard being shut again. She was alone...again.

This wasn't the first time Ruby had been left behind for being too young by her friends as it been going on for the past few months but had become very frequent in the past four weeks. Once the weekend rolled around, the three older girls of Team RWBY would go out to Vale with JNPR and sometimes other teams like CFVY along with Sun and Neptune to party or something along those lines.

And of course, every time Ruby wasn't allowed to come because of her age. That gave the redhead many lonely spent alone in her room until her teammates either came back and went straight to bed with talking to their leader or Ruby fell asleep waiting up for them.

This may not have been as big of a problem as Ruby understood that her teammates wanted some time to themselves due to being more mature since Ruby's idea of a "good time" was playing board games or video games in the room when an entire city full of possibilities was out there.

The real problem came from the fact that Ruby didn't have any real friends of her own as her friends were either her teammates or connections she made through them since starting at Beacon.

Team JNPR was friendly to her but they preferred to hang out more with Weiss, Blake, and Yang over her. Team CFVY was friendly too, but she didn't really know them that well and they didn't really talk back to her since she was a year below them and was really only on friendly terms with Velvet who spent most of her time with Coco. Sun and Neptune only ever talked to her if Weiss or Blake were around and didn't really know her personally.

So, the only true friend Ruby had made on her own was Penny, but she had only ever met the girl twice and since then hasn't seen a breath of her robotic friend.

Because of that, Ruby came to the realization that she didn't have any friends that were interested in her because of who she was and not because she was friends with Weiss, Blake, and especially Yang who was very popular in the first year.

She...was alone. Ruby Rose was nothing more than the weird kid who nobody liked because of her age and personality.

It hurts.

Ruby felt tears come to her eyes as the harsh realization came to her that she was the outcast. Rejected by everyone around her, including those she saw as her friends and her big sister who had always been there for her.

However, instead of crying, Ruby rubbed her eyes and shook her head. _"No, Ruby Rose. Don't think like that! It's them you're talking about! Sure, Weiss can be a jerk sometimes and Blake's kinda emo, but they care about you! Not to mention that you have the coolest sister in the world as your best buddy!"_

Ruby smiled as she thought it over and decided since her friends wouldn't be back for a short while, she should simply head over to the library to do some reading or study for Dr. Oobleck's big test on Vale's involvement in the Great War and its alliance with Vacuo that was happening next Monday.

With that, Ruby collected some of her stuff and her Scroll before she opened the door and was ready to head over to the library but was caught off guard when she heard Yang laughing along with the others.

"So, this happened when Ruby first unlocked her Semblance!" Yang said through her laughter. "She couldn't control herself and went so fast that she sped out of her clothes and was left in nothing but her underwear!"

Ruby felt her face go a bright shade of red and her heart drop into her stomach upon hearing Yang tell Weiss, Blake, and Team JNPR about her wardrobe malfunction back at Signal. Her blush deepened when she heard the rest of them laugh as well.

"Oh my god!" Weiss laughed. "I wish I could've seen that!"

"I know right?" Yang said. "I was gonna try to take some pictures but she sped out of their back to the house before I could. Lucky for her, she remembered to hang onto her underwear so she wouldn't be running back in her birthday suit!" Yang roared with laughter. "I was so ready to post them online but my dad threatened to ground me for two months if I didn't delete them. Shame."

Ruby felt humiliation creep in upon hearing her partner and the rest of her friends laugh at her expense.

_"I can't believe Yang is telling everyone about my embarrassing __stories from back home at Signal!" _Ruby thought to herself in crisis.

"That's awesome!" Nora laughed. "So what else do you have to tell us?"

"Well, there are a bunch of things I could tell you, but really it's sad when I think about it. Ruby doesn't really have any friends outside of us. Nobody back at Signal was ever a real friend to her so I more or less had to keep abandoning my friends just to make sure she wouldn't be left out." Yang explained to the others which raised Ruby's spirits just a bit.

"That must've been hard," Weiss said with empathy to Yang. "I don't know how you do it! That dolt and I are practically glued to each other both in and out of classes due to Ozpin making me her partner. It's always her trying to be as annoying as possible with her constant whining and demands about wanting to be '_BFFs' _as she puts it."

Ruby's eyes widened upon hearing such hurtful things from her partner. "W-What...?"

"I hear you," Blake said with her own tone of annoyance. "I can't remember all the times I was trying to get some peace and quiet only for her to come along and ruin it and I always have to go to the library or somewhere she won't follow after me."

Ruby felt tears starting to well up in her eyes from the hurtful words. "That's...not true..."

"Trust me, I have it worse than any of you," Yang spoke up which made Ruby feel like lightning crashed through her and gave her a heart attack. "I had to grow up with her and after my dad started working at Signal, I was stuck with her basically 24/7. I can't count how many times I had to cancel hangouts with my friends because Ruby was too shy to make any friends of her own. So annoying..."

Ruby started weeping at that point. Yang had always been there for her, but to hear this from her big sister? It was beyond heartbreaking for the poor girl.

"I thought you were glad to have your sister come to Beacon with you?" Pyrrha asked which brought a drop of hope to Ruby but it was once again flooded with pain and despair.

"I was at first, but then I realized how I was stuck with her again and that only got worse when she was put on the same team as me. I could've done well with two years without her around me. If you ask me, she should've stayed back at Signal for two more years until she matured a bit before getting accepted here. I honestly don't know what Ozpin was thinking with letting here early."

Ruby was silently crying and dropped her books onto the floor which somehow wasn't noticed by the older students in the room next to her.

"I guess you have a point," Jaune spoke up. "I'll be the first to admit that I'm not the best student here, but even Ruby's attitude can kinda become annoying sometimes."

"Replace 'sometimes' with 'all the time' and I'll agree with you," Weiss said.

"She is a bit incapable of fighting, especially without her scythe." Pyrrha spoke, the most polite out of all of them but even she seemed to be a part of "who can insult Ruby Rose the most?" game.

"Yeah, I mean. She's more or less useless without it, isn't she?" Nora piped up.

"I have seen her attempt hand-to-hand before, not exactly what I'd call adequate," Ren added.

Ruby was sobbing into her arms at this point as her tears stained the floor. Every last one of them agreed that she was a useless annoyance that they didn't want around her. What more proof did she need? She was the only one not invited to her team's own hangout with Jaune's team...

"Oh, guys!" Yang spoke up. "I just remembered I got a letter from Velvet! She said that Coco's having a huge party over at that new club in Vale, the one that opened this week! She said we're all invited and some third-years are even attending! We have to go!"

"Really?! Awesome!" Nora cheered. "What are waiting for?!"

"As much as I find your parties over in the slums barbaric, there's no way I'm missing out on this," Weiss said.

"I'm in too," Blake said as well.

"You know we're all for it," Jaune said and Ruby heard the sounds of everyone standing up which made her eyes widened before she used her Semblance to collect her stuff and ran back into her room and quickly, yet quietly, shut the door just as the door to Team JNPR's room opened and she heard the seven of them all talking as they walked down the hall to Coco's party over in Vale.

As soon as she was certain they were gone, Ruby peeked outside the door to make sure nobody was around before opening it completely. She looked around and saw that the door to JNPR's room was slightly ajar. She knew it was wrong, but she couldn't help herself as she walked over and carefully opened the door to see some of the sheets of the bed ruffled and some drawers opened.

What caught her attention was a piece of paper sitting on one of the beds and grabbed it as she began to read:

_To the three older girls of Team RWBY,_

_Hey guys! This is Velvet of Team CFVY! I'm here to tell you that Coco has organized a huge party for first and second-year students in the new club that opened in Vale this week! Some third-year students have even agreed to come and we're excited to have you Weiss, Blake, and Yang!_

_Since you live right across from Team JNPR, can you tell them that they're invited too? We couldn't risk sending this out via texts with the faculty watching the network and we had only a few of these letters made to avoid suspicion. Thanks for letting them know._

_Also, I think it goes without saying, but could you not tell your leader, Ruby, about this? The party is only for those 17 and up and we don't want to risk this getting out since we can't really trust her to keep this a secret. Can't wait to see you guys out there Friday night! The party starts at 8:00!_

_\- Velvet_

Ruby lowered the letter with her hands trembling. There was a party that she wasn't invited to? No, everyone _except_ for her had been invited! Everyone BUT her! This was so unfair!

She re-read the letter several times just to be sure of what she read was true. Upon realization, the harsh truth came crashing down: she had nobody. She was truly alone with no friends!

She was all alone!

Ruby began to weep and sob openly as she ran back to her room and shut the door before hopping onto Weiss' bed and began sobbing her heart out.

Why did the world hate her so? Why was she the only one in Beacon treated like a social outcast? Why?!

Ruby cried for about fifteen minutes until she was physically incapable of producing any more tears but even then she didn't stop for a good long half an hour Afterward, she stood up and walked over to the mirror and blew her nose into a tissue that she threw into the garbage as she looked at herself.

She had red, puffy eyes and a sniffling nose with a look of pure sorrow on her face as she thought about how much fun everyone must be having at the party...without her there to annoy anyone...

That was when her sorrow was suddenly replaced with another feeling: pure rage. No, it was hatred.

Hatred at everyone. Her team, JNPR, CFVY and every other student in Beacon for turning her into _this_. A crying mess with nobody who loved her. She hated it! She hated _them_! She hated everyone!

"SCREW YOU!" Ruby yelled out at her reflection and held the urge to punch the wall before she began to beat Weiss' pillow onto her bed and scream out her frustration! "Screw, no..._fuck_ those bastards! Fuck all of them! Fuck Weiss! Fuck Blake! Fuck JNPR! Fuck CFVY! AND ESPECIALLY FUCK YOU, YANG!"

She panted from exerting her anger but it wasn't quelled as she remembered all the hurtful things they said.

How she was annoying, useless without her weapon...

Useless? Well, not for long... She would prove them all wrong!

Ruby looked over to Crescent Rose in it's compact form and grabbed it before her hands shook in rage as she opened her drawer, buried her weapon under her clothes, and shut it. It had once been a source of joy for her but now it was a reminder.

She was weak.

Too weak to make friends. Too weak to stand up for herself. Too weak to fight without it. Well, things are going to change from now on...

Ruby grabbed a duffle bag and filled it with spare clothes and a water container, along with her Scroll as she went into the bathroom and changed into gym clothes before walking out the door of her room and left it empty with the lights off.

No longer would she be held back. She would prove them ALL wrong. She was going to become the best damn Huntress in all of Beacon! The best anyone had ever seen! Better than Pyrrha, better than Yang, better than her uncle Qrow, and even better than her mother, her childhood hero/inspiration.

She was going to become strong.

* * *

**Here we go, _A Rose in Pain_ is back and better than ever and dare I say I am proud at how quickly it took for me to write this chapter!**

**I sincerely apologize to everyone who was shocked and worried when they realized the story was taken down! The truth is, and many of you probably know but for those who don't, I have been dealing with depression for a while...at least since February.**

**I have gotten much better since then and I dare say I am almost good to go. But it came back strong in the past few days but I feel much better now and that was the reason I deleted the story. I felt such strong despair and hatred and forced so much of that onto the story...the problem is I forced _too_ much and ruined some things.**

**But also because I feel I rushed some of the chapters. Don't get me wrong, they were good but I feel I could've done a lot better with dialogue and such so I decided to delete and make sure they are NO mistakes like the ones I made this time around.**

**I apologize again for the sudden deletion but I promise it won't happen again! Thank you for your understanding and I promise to post more stories onto this site that I hope you will love.**

**Also, like I previously stated, this story was heavily inspired by both "Red and Pink" by _jin0uga_ and "Notice Me, Ruby!" by _JustAnotherGuy04_, the latter of which I am a huge fan of his stories about RWBY.**

**RWBY is owned by Monty Oum & Rooster Teeth.**


	2. Chapter 2

**CHAPTER 2 \- Cold**

* * *

A few minutes later and Ruby had arrived at the school gym. Luckily it was opened until midnight on the weekends due to students being encouraged by the staff to test out their abilities in training, sparring, and weight lifting.

Which was exactly why she was here, to conquer her greatest weakness and foe: hand-to-hand combat.

Ruby and hand-to-hand had never gone well together. She had despised the fighting style due to both her lack of strength and experience without her precious Crescent Rose and due to her obsession with weapons. Just another reason why she was cast out by those she used to call friends. But no longer for she had found something to hate even more.

The gym wasn't crowded but it did have a number of male students from the third and fourth-year who were very serious about their future careers as Huntsmen being very close and due to their more risky assignments involving the Grimm, they had to be prepared physically.

The boys were very surprised to see a first-year girl who looked too young to even be in Beacon enter the gym with a very spiteful look on her face that warned anyone around her that she wasn't to be messed with.

She ignored their stares as she went over to the mats and began her stretching. As much as she wanted to get to sparring, she would be utterly destroyed by these students who were much more experienced in the art not to mention far, _far_ stronger than her. So, for now, she would focus on improving her overall physical strength so she wouldn't be crushed under the weight of her opponents who could literally crush her. It would be difficult, but if it meant she could wipe those smug smirks of the faces of her teammates then it was more than worth it.

But as she did her stretches, she heard the whispers come from behind her.

"Who is that kid? Isn't she a first year, she looks too young to be a student."

"I think that's Ruby Rose, the girl who got accepted two years early by Ozpin."

"Oh her, I keep hearing nothing but bad things about her from the first-years. They say she's a sugar freak whose obsessed with weapons and has no friends outside of her sister who she constantly hides behind."

Ruby winced but ultimately chose not to say anything. She couldn't let them distract her from proving the others wrong.

"From what I heard, she's the worst when it comes to fighting hand-to-hand and hates exercise, so why is she here all of a sudden?"

"Who knows? Maybe her friends ditched her and she chose to come here."

Ruby was surprised by how accurate the last one was. It hurt at how brutally honest it was but she couldn't stop. It was going to be a long, painful process but she would rather tear all her muscles than have to deal with anymore bullshit from her sister and _her_ friends.

Once she was done with the stretches, she looked around to see an assortment of weight-lifting machines to choose from. She remembered seeing Yang could lift more than one-hundred and fifty pounds on these alone whenever she dragged her out her to do the torture she called "sparring". But she didn't really trust the machines that much and also she was very weak compared to Yang so maybe she should try a different approach for now...

She saw a treadmill and decided that running would probably hurt less than lifting her own weight and walked over but pulled something out of her pocket; the letter from Velvet to her teammates that she had brought along with her. She originally felt like tearing it into as many pieces as she could but then thought that it could serve as the perfect motivation for her.

Stepping onto it, she registered her height and weight before she decided to start with five miles per hour as the rubber beneath her began to roll backwards, forcing her to walk forward. She quickly began to up it until she got to the point where she was now jogging and looked to see most of the stares had gone back to simply doing their own thing which brought some relief to the redhead.

She soon kicked it up to running and began working up a sweat as she read the letter over and over to get her anger rising and have adrenaline pumping through her until after twenty-five minutes, her legs felt like noodles and she had to sit down to take a well-deserved drink.

Ruby felt like that alone counter for a week's worth of exercise but she knew this was merely the tip of the iceberg if she wanted to become the strongest. She told herself this as she looked to see a list she had written down for herself as part of the regiment she looked up online for beginners. It included weight-lifting machines and dumbbells to work her muscles and then practice hand-to-hand with sparring before running again and doing the process as it said.

She sighed and laid down for a moment as she looked around to see all the third and fourth-year males all doing these workouts like they were nothing to them and didn't even see it is a proper warm-up. She groaned, it was going to be a LONG night.

Shame that it would be the first of many.

* * *

**_3 Hours & 30 Minutes Later..._**

Ruby was practically crawling through the hallway back to her room where she wanted nothing to do but shower and hop into bed and let the pillow take care of the rest as her muscles felt like they were burning in lava from the stress she forced onto herself. It was very close to midnight as Ruby had spent that past three and a half hours doing nothing but working out like she planned to do. She, of course, felt like giving up so many times due to not being used to such physical activity but her motivation and the harsh words from her former friends are what kept her going.

Her workout started with twenty-five minutes on the treadmill before going straight to the weight lifting which was torture on her arms along with the dumbbells until she was ready for sparring. This was definitely the worst of all as she had little to no experience in the field and all of her opponents were much bigger, heavier, and stronger than her which resulted in her losing every single match she went into.

She couldn't keep track of how many times she was thrown to the ground but every time she got up and continued on which surprised most of the guys as most first-years would've given up after the first try but she refused to give in, despite how weak she was in comparison.

Thus, once the clock hit 11:40 at night, Ruby decided that enough was enough for today and painfully brought herself back to her room as she felt like collapsing and falling asleep on the cold floor. All she needed to do was take a cold shower to prolong her drowsiness and to wash off the sweat before climbing into her bed or anything comfortable with a pillow.

As she walked, she turned the corner and accidentally bumped into someone who dropped their papers onto the ground.

"Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry!" Ruby apologized as she helped the person pick up their papers and handed them back, only to find to her surprise who she bumped in to by accident. "Professor Goodwitch?"

Glynda Goodwitch took the papers from her student and was surprised to see her, but even more so upon seeing the state the young girl was in. She looked extremely fatigued, like she would collapse on the spot and was drenched in sweat that replaced her sweet scent of roses and strawberries with a horrible odor that caused the teacher to rear her head back in disgust.

"Ms. Rose, where have you been? You look horrible and...that _smell_!" She said, waving her hand.

"I'm sorry, I just got back from the gym and I guess I really overdid it." Ruby said as she bowed in apology. This surprised the teacher as "Ruby" and "the gym" didn't really fit in the same sentence together until the word "hates" was between them. The thought of the weapon-obsessed girl being involved with exercise came off as too alien for her to process at first.

"Professor? Are you okay?" Ruby asked upon seeing the perplexed expression on her teacher's face.

"Hm? Oh, yes. I apologize, I was zoned out for a second." Glynda said as she straightened her pages. "But in truth, I'm glad I found you Ms. Rose. There's something I've been meaning to ask you."

"Sure! What do you need?"

"Have you seen any of your teammates or Team JNPR? I saw the door to their room left open and noticed that neither they nor your own teammates were present in your dorms. I understand it is the weekend and they're most likely in town for whatever children do these days, but I've noticed that a large number of first and second-year teams aren't on campus at the moment. Do you know what this might be about?"

Ruby froze in silence upon realizing it. Team CFVY had done their best to make sure the faculty didn't know about their forbidden party and here Professor Goodwitch was so close to discovering something that could get a LOT of students in trouble...

...including her own teammates.

A small smirk came to Ruby's face as she though about it. This was the perfect opportunity for revenge. All she had to do was hand Goodwitch the letter and she would be down on Weiss, Blake, Yang and the others faster than she could get to the other end of school and back. She could only imagine their horrified expressions upon realizing they were caught red handed and would probably be handed the most detention any of them had ever gotten.

Weiss would freak out knowing her perfect record would be shattered.

Blake would miss out on so many different books waiting for her in the library.

Yang...oh _Yang. _Her dad and Uncle Qrow might even give her their own punishment for going to a less-than-legal party for someone her age that could go anywhere to a major grounding to having her hair cut short. Oh it would be _so _delicious. Not just them, but JNPR, CFVY, SSSN, and the other teams who had abandoned her would all be punished.

However, the more she thought about it, the more she realized how risky it would be. If she did blow their cover, than who's to say that the others wouldn't find out it was her who screwed them all over as she was the only student in the first-year class not invited and she would instantly incur the wrath of both the first and second-year students, including her own teammates.

Weiss would probably freeze her on the spot, Blake would stick _Gambol Shroud_ into a very uncomfortable place, and Yang might drag her away to give a full on beatdown or reveal all her embarrassing secrets to everyone in Beacon...

Ruby thought it over quickly and decided it wasn't worth the risk, despite how much she wanted to get back at her traitorous teammates. With her mind decided, she focused back onto the professor. "Sorry, Professor. I was in the gym for over three hours, I haven't really seen them since classes ended this afternoon."

"I see, well if you do find them, be sure to let me know." Glynda said and Ruby nodded as she continued on her way. As she did, Glynda turned back to see how messily Ruby walked due to her weakness but that isn't what got her attention. It was that look she saw in Ruby's silver eyes.

That fire that looked like it wanted to consume everything in its path without a second thought. Those eyes were filled with sorrow, resentment, and hatred.

"Ms. Rose?" Glynda asked as she turned back to her student. "Are you okay? You don't seem well."

"It's okay, I'm just really tired." Ruby said.

"I'm not talking physically, I mean are _you _okay? You don't seem like yourself." The professor said as she approached Ruby who was slightly tensed. "You look very angry and resentful."

"Angry? Why would I be angry?" Ruby said with a fake smile. "I'm just really tired from working out for so long that I guess I just look sour."

The teacher frowned as she could feel the lies coming off of Ruby along with her hate. It was like a glowing red around her body and in her eyes.

"Well, if you ever feel like you need to talk to someone, you can let me know. I may be an instructor but I'm also here to help students whenever they're dealing with any psychological issues which can be very harmful if not treated properly." She said as she released her stern behavior. "If you ever feel like you're dealing with very upsetting things in your life, please make sure to let us teachers know."

"That's very nice of you, Professor." Ruby said. "But I don't need help with anything. I feel just fine."

"Are you absolutely sure?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.

Ruby was silent before she nodded. Glynda narrowed her eyes, knowing she was lying through her teeth but decided it wasn't better to force it at the moment given how stubbornly reclusive Ruby was being. "Alright, goodnight Ruby."

"Goodnight, Professor." Ruby said as she went back to walking. _"That's weird. I don't think she's ever called me by my first name..."_

Turning another corner, she found herself walking down her hallway to the dorm as took out her Scroll and unlocked her door to find the room the same way she left it: empty and untouched, which didn't surprise her and could only assume that her teammates were still at Coco's party and decided it would be better to simply head to bed given how tired she was.

Dropping her stuff onto the floor and sliding it under Weiss' bed since Blake had numerous smut books hidden under her bed, she grabbed a towel and headed into the bathroom as she got her sweaty clothes and threw them into a laundry bin before she set the water to a cool temperature as she stepped under the water and let her blackish-red hair flow freely down to her back and hummed upon feeling like her exhaustion was slowly melting away.

In the water, she couldn't help but think about what her friends must be doing over in Vale right now. She suspected that other teams like SSSN and the others visiting for the Vytal Festival were probably there as well. A part of her wanted to assume that she wasn't the only student not invited to the party but the words of Velvet's letter proved her doubts as she was certain that basically every student in the first and second-year classes were there since she hadn't seen a single one walking through the halls or any sounds coming from their rooms.

She hated it so much, she hated them so much. But she couldn't just storm over to Vale to yell at her teammates for ditching her, no...they needed to understand her pain and know what it feels like when they're the ones ignored and forgotten like a piece of trash. Only then did they have her permission to feel any form of guilt or sorrow in whatever they had for hearts.

Upon cleansing herself and washing her hair she quickly dried off and checked to see nobody was there before boldly running across the room naked to her drawers before putting on her pajamas and upon climbing into her own bed, promptly collapsed and immediately fell to sleep.

But the feelings of hatred in her heart never faded even after she fell to unconsciousness. As it would fuel her dreams.

* * *

Outside in the halls, the WBY of Team RWBY were walking back to their dorm along with Team JNPR. Some like Pyrrha, Ren, and Weiss looked more or less normal after returning from Coco's party while others such as Jaune and Blake looked a little ruffled showing that they weren't simply sitting by the entire time, but the worst was definitely Yang and Nora who both looked like they had a blast with Yang's hair all scruffy and it looked like Nora was missing her socks and possibly her bra.

"Nora, I can't believe you ran around without a bra!" Weiss scolded the ginger who was only laughing along with Yang.

"But it was hilarious!" Nora laughed.

"I'll say!" Yang said with laughter as she looked at the pictures she got from the party, including Nora's topless incident and Ren trying to cover his eyes. "That was awesome, Nora! I doubt anyone's gonna keep quiet about this on Monday!"

"Lucky us." Ren said deadpanned as they reached their rooms.

"Thanks for letting us know about this, guys." Jaune said. "I mean, I'm sure we're going to be the talk of the school thanks to Nora, and not in a good way, but all in all it was great."

"Told you they'd like it, Weissicle." Yang teased Weiss who huffed.

"I think I think I'd actually prefer your other stupid nicknames." She said.

"Sure thing, Weiss Cream."

"Goddammit, Yang..."

"It's such a shame that Ruby couldn't come with since she's too young." Pyrrha said with some sympathy for the redhead girl. "I'm sure she would've loved it."

"Sorry I couldn't bring her, but Coco didn't want anyone to risk the party. I'm sure Rubes would understand." Yang said, unaware of how wrong she truly was. "Well, see you guys tomorrow."

With that, the teams exchanged goodbyes before the three girls entered the room and turned on the light to see Ruby asleep in her bed and they suspected she simply went to asleep after playing video games or eating too many sweets before crashing. But when Weiss went to go take a shower, she sniffed upon smelling something very rancid, like a pair of sweaty socks.

"What is that horrible smell?" Weiss said as she covered her nose. Immediately, Blake's ears twitched and her nose wrinkled as well upon smelling it too but Yang simply smelled herself to see if it was her. "Nope, not me."

Blake sat up from her bed and went across to Weiss' own before she knelt down and pulled out the duffel bag that Ruby hid under her's before she unzipped it to find the source of the odor and pinched her nose immediately. "Found it."

"Who's bag is that and why was it under MY bed?" Weiss asked before she looked inside to see sweaty gym clothes and she didn't waste a second by glaring at Yang who was laying on top of her bed. "Xiao Long, there's something called 'laundry' for when you're done coming back from the gymnasium."

"What are you talking about? I haven't been to the gym since Monday." Yang spoke as she hopped down and looked inside. "These aren't even my clothes, they're way too small."

"Well, I never went down to that germ-filled training room." Weiss defended herself before turning to Blake who shook her head. "Then who...?" She was cut off when she realized the only other person in the room and looked up to Ruby, still sound asleep.

"Come on, Weiss." Yang said sarcastically. "There's no way this is Ruby's, she hates exercise unless its with her weapon."

"Well, there's nobody else who could've done it." Weiss argued back.

"Guys, please. Can't this wait until morning? It's almost half past midnight." Blake reminded the other two and they silently agreed.

"Fine, we'll discuss this in the morning." Weiss said as she went into the bathroom to take her shower but also to put the dirty gym clothes in the laundry basket before being followed by Blake and then Yang. Soon, the three girls finally drifted off to sleep, but Weiss couldn't help but notice how Ruby tossed around in her sleep like she was having a bad dream.

"_Something's not right about her."_ Weiss thought. "_I guess I'll ask in the morning_." Soon she hit her pillow and was out like a light but the feeling of suspicion never left her as she slept with Ruby still moving around in her sleep and moaning out.

"...all your fault..." She moaned out in her sleep. "...it's all your guy's fault..."

* * *

**Already a single chapter in and most of my faithful fans have returned! Sixty favorites and just over eighty followers, I am very pleased to see that you all remained loyal despite me turning my back to you guys by suddenly deleting the story three chapters in.**

**This chapter took longer than expected due to writer's block and not knowing exactly where to take it from here. I am hoping to get the next chapter out in a much shorter time frame but I can't promise anything since I am working on other things outside of writing this story for you guys.**

**I would like to thank those who gave a review to my story and for being faithful!**

**BlackDragonDevilGod, thank you for both your support and empathy and understanding my needs, your review really helped.**

**lasereye27, thank you for being loyal and giving some advice that I probably should've used prior to this.**

**Heavyarms150, thank you for showing me how my depression can actually serve to help me to do better in writing.**

**As much as I would love to thank everyone, I can't go through with _every_ review on these stories otherwise my notes would take up the majority of the story, but I am glad to see that you're enjoying the re-make to this story and I promise to continue strong going forward.**

**RWBY is owned by Monty Oum & Rooster Teeth.**


	3. NOTICE: What the fk have I been doing?

**(NOTICE: THIS IS A TEMPORARY NOTE!)**

From the HUNDREDS OF FOLLOWS AND LIKES (which I don't feel I deserve) to the many PMs asking "when is the next chapter?" and "please update soon", I know many of you have been very, VERY, **VERY** patient with me in regards for the next chapter of **A Rose in Pain**.

I'm sure you've all been thinking "WHEN IS THE NEXT GODDAMN CHAPTER COMING OUT, YOU LAZY JACKASS?!" and I don't blame you for thinking that in the slightest.

(Also, sorry if you were excited for nothing when you saw this notice come up and thought it WAS the next chapter. DX)

The truth is, I just lost my motivation for this story a LONG time ago. When I first started, which was before the world went to hell, I was filled with a bunch of negative emotions clouding my head and now new ones have taken their place, but they UNFORTUNATELY don't drive me to unleash my inner fury onto words like the previous ones did.

So, I am sorry!

Am I giving up on this story? No, I swear to you I am not nor have I forgotten. The constant messages in my Gmail won't let me. :/

So yes, the reason why I have updated in almost a year is because I hit a roadblock. Perhaps the biggest roadblock I have ever had. I can't tell you how many times I'm sorry, otherwise you'd be here until you dropped unconscious on your keyboard.

I will try to work on the next chapter as soon as I'm done with this little message, but try to understand it's not easy to just pop chapters out over and over, especially when my original drive for this story is actually long gone.

But I promise I will get back to it to the best of my ability. Thank you for taking the time to read this.

**Until next time,**

**\- Kagashira**


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